You might be waiting forever for a cheap copy, there were so few PS3 copies it sold out within a week or so.

That's why I decided to get my copy now rather than pay scalper prices. Amazon and Shopto will let you backorder but that doesn't mean they'll be getting more copies.

The load times are absolute arse by the way, even with the massive mandatory install, there's very much a sense that they were doing the bare minimum with this port. I've lost count of the number of times where I've loaded a game and Shepard is up to his knees inside the floor.

Cappy wrote:
Typical, the part of Mass Effect that I end up enjoying the most is the feature that gets cut out of the sequels.

I rather like exploring in the Mako, on an ice planet I could perhaps pretend a new Midwinter game had been released, or on any terrain pretend they'd made a new Starflight game.

The controls seem fine on the PS3, was it the PC version people were complaining about enough to get the Mako cut out of subsequent games?

Goodbye, last vestige of free exploration.

The control was fine, just dull outside of the non-story based mako sections. Once you did one square of rocky texture populated with the same old things, you'd done them all. That was the kind of stuff I was glad to see cut and replaced with unique story side instances.

Widge wrote:
The control was fine, just dull outside of the non-story based mako sections. Once you did one square of rocky texture populated with the same old things, you'd done them all. That was the kind of stuff I was glad to see cut and replaced with unique story side instances.

If story instances means more cut-scenes and combat that's pretty sad.

I think I'm near the end of Mass Effect now, I never thought I'd get that far after my first impressions.

All that exploring hardly anybody liked, trying to figure out which upgrade is best, that's what kept me playing. The faint possibility of something good being out there is usually enough for me, I like loot.

At one point investigating an anomaly on a barren planet, a speck of light on the edge of a flat expanse caught my eye. It turned out to be a purple cube, about the size of a Rubic's Cube scaled against the player character. I couldn't pick it up, push it, or do anything, though it was definitely there and could be shot.

I'd obviously found a Lament Configuration, I got out of there pretty sharpish.

Overall it improved a lot as I played further, though the combat continued to have problems all the way through, I wish there was ship to ship combat in there somewhere, was Skies of Arcadia really the last time we saw that in an RPG?

Bethesda's notorious PS3 efforts have nothing on the Overlord DLC which got rolled into the PS3 version of Mass Effect 2, I've never seen anything so awful in a supposedly finished current generation product, some sort of texture bug keeps cropping up making near distance textures so lo-res they look like a mosaic. No exaggeration, it's alpha quality.

So the vehicle sections sporadically look like parts of a PS1 game are breaking through, but it doesn't end there, it's rife with glitches like the vehicle falling through the ground, I'm currently stuck, dropped through the scenery someplace with no way out. I'll have to quit and lose progress.

Yeah it's bizarre seeing the pixelated ground textures in PS3 overload. Generally performance in PS3 Mass Effect 2 is alright but the DLC is a different matter altogether. The frame during Lair of the Shadow Broker is fucking awful. Speaking of fucking awful; Lair of the Shadow Broker is actually just fucking awful. Seriously why does that DLC get so much praise? The majority of it is taken up with endless shooting, the actual Shadow Broker reveal is a completely uninteresting letdown and the DLC fits in awkwardly within the main game. Utter pish.

I've finished the entire trilogy now, plus I tried the online component of the third game.

Overall okay, but I can't help wondering if the series would have got so much attention if it hadn't debuted as a hyped, much anticipated exclusive.

*spoiler alert*

The ending could have been a lot better also. It seems pretty ill considered, especially dovetailing the first face to face meeting and final reckoning with the Illusive Man with the Catalyst sequence directly afterwards. It's rather clumsy and abrupt.

I think the game also creates a special save at that point in the game regardless of where the player saved so if you install ME2 on the same PC it should find it. ME2 presents you with your eligible saves and you choose which to import. I think.

The Mako was fine apart from steep mountains, its like the map designer and the mako designer didn't speak to each other. Bioware could of made the planets more interesting to explore and the inventory was not broken as some make out, it was just very clunky. in 2, we got the dull as dishwater hammerheard and planet scanning. Sadly other gamers wanted it to become more of cover based shooter than RPG

Funnily enough I've just gone back to Mass Effect today for the first time since before Christmas. Need a game to sink my teeth into, and this is my current choice. So far I have just been made a Spectre and now I'm gonna go and shoot Saren in the face. Although it's a bit of a shame that now I know exactly what happens with the plot in ME1 and what happens at the end of the trilogy. But hopefully the journey is worth it.

So I was pretty pissed at the ME3 ending. Really pissed. It honestly upset me that they could do something cruel and stupid to end such an amazing series. I’d played ME1 through five or six time, ME2 about eight times; and ME3 I played once and vowed never to look at again.

But time heals all wounds apparently. And puts sparkly lights on your fondest memories.

I went back and played ME1 again last week – a proper completionist play through like I’ve done every time before – and then got stuck into ME2 and what I realised as I played was that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the ending of ME3 apart from the presentation. The actual ending fit the tone of the trilogy perfectly.

The whole storyline – and its component parts – are filled with silly sci-fi writing, massive Macguffins and cheap forced drama. I’d either forgotten all about that or wilfully rewritten my memories. ME1 and ME2 are great games; but they are not storytelling Mecca.

What really stood out is that there is no moral system and no choice. Nothing you do matters. You either pick blue, neutral or red (top, middle or bottom) and you know exactly what short of reply you’ll make no matter what it says. Top = nice, middle = continue prompt, bottom = mean. And more obvious still; it doesn’t matter which you pick because it changes nothing.

Throughout the series you only have one choice which matters – kill Ashley or Kaiden. The only way to get other characters killed is by sucking at the game (saying the wrong stuff to Rex, picking the wrong team members at the end of ME2, etc). Otherwise absolutely – absolutely – nothing changes bar you being a little more polite or a little more snippy with people. That’s it.

And the end of ME3?

You went left for blue (nice – everyone lives, including the reapers, you become god), middle for green (neutral – I consider the “best of both worlds” choice to be pretty neutral), right for red (evil – kill or robots). Exactly. The. Same. Exactly the same thing you’ve done a million times across these three games without batting an eyelid, apart from the fact you didn’t choose it from a menu.

So why did the ending really upset me? Looking back it’s obvious – it was like seeing the Wizard of Oz behind his curtain. My brain suddenly realised that I hadn’t actually gone on some epic space adventure that was entirely my own; I’d spent dozens of hours choosing top, middle or bottom and following a completely set path. Like all games.

In the cold light of day, then, the only change I’d make to the ending is removing the choice – the ending you see should have been based just on your paragon/renegade score because that would have maintained the illusion of choice. That’s it.

And that realisation has allowed me to see that ME3 is actually one of the best games I’ve ever played. Great combat, great NPCs, great set piece fights and a wonderful sci-fi story that – while pretty poor from a literary point of view – is still top of its class in terms of game storyline. The ending was pretty wank, sure, but then again the whole story was silly and it really did fit perfectly.

No wonder the whole reaction to the ending took them by surprise at Bioware.

Ok, admittedly you don't have those moments where the game thrusts upon you "HEY MAKE A CHOICE RIGHT NOW THAT IS IMPORTANT"... but lots of your actions influence elements of the game, tailoring it to your character, sometimes with a tinge of sadness...

I look at how my femshep ended up in ME3... ditching Liara interest from ME1 & 2 to remain emotionally detached from the war, and ending up spending her last night alone. How the Quarians couldn't get past their desire to destroy the Geth, ultimately resulting in their downfall. That also tied into my synthesis ending as Shep had decided to forge forwards with a future that saw machines and AI as equals in that war.

It is very subtle, but that is ok, although slightly jarring when you do get that massive final big choice thrust upon you. Personally, had no issue with the entire game converging on one point, that is fine... more about the journey of how you get there.